1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-polar shielded connector in which a plurality of shielded wires are accommodated.
2. Description of Relevant Art
There has been disclosed shielded connectors in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication Nos. 8-138798, 8-153555, 8-250219, 8-264238, and 8-3300226 (which have previously been filed by the present applicant).
Such a shielded connector is provided with an inner housing having an accommodating portion in which a terminal connected to an end portion of a shielded wire together with the end portion is accommodated, an outer housing formed integrally with the inner housing inside thereof, a cylindrical metallic shell (shielding member) disposed between the inner housing and the outer housing so as to cover the accommodating portion, and a shield contactor for conductively connecting a braid wire of the shielded wire and the metallic shell. The connecter has a rubber plug for water-proofing between the inner wall of the outer housing and the shielded wire, and a retainer for preventing the rubber plug from falling off from the outer housing.
In such a shielded connector, the end portion of the shielded wire and the terminal connected to the end portion are electromagnetically shielded from each other by the metallic shell conductively connected to the braid wire of the shielded wire via the shield contactor. Also, the metallic shell is connected to a metallic shell of a mating connector fitted thereto to be grounded to an equipment and the like.
In a case of a structure having an end portion of one shielded wire and a terminal connected to the end portion, as the above shielded connector structure, it is easy to effect electromagnetic shield by covering the whole of one accommodation portion with a metallic shell. However, in a case of a shielded connector (multi-polar connector) having a plurality of accommodating portions each accommodating one of end portions of many shielded wires and a terminal connected to the one, covering the accommodating portions with respective metallic shells requires an increased number of component parts and an unnecessarily large sized shielded connector having a space for arranging the metallic shells covering the respective accommodating portions.
Also, the structures of the inner housing and the outer housing become complicated due to the arrangement of the plurality of metallic shells.
Further, in addition to connecting portions for connecting the plurality of metallic shells and braid wires of the respective shielded wires, connecting structure for connecting the respective metallic shells among them and connecting structure for connecting the respective metallic shells to metallic shells of a mating connector are also required, which results in a complicated structure.